Stellenbosch’s success in the post-match penalty shootout that decided the outcome of the Carling Knockout was no accident as the club practiced extensively before Saturday’s final against TS Galaxy, said coach Steve Barker.
Stellenbosch triumphed 5-4 on kicks after a 1-1 draw with TS Galaxy at the end of extra time at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, to pick up their first major piece of silverware.
“After losing a penalty shootout to Kaizer Chiefs in the MTN8 quarter-finals last season and then Sekhukhune in the Nedbank Cup semi-final, we were determined not to ever lose a penalty shootout again,” the Stellenbosch coach explained.
“So we did a lot of homework in terms of our penalties, but we got thrown a bit of a curveball following Fawaaz Basadien’s red card. He was one of our designated key penalty takers.
“We did our homework on opposition so (goalkeeper) Sage Stephens looked at his bottle to see where he could expect an opposition player to go. We've tried to be scientific about it making our best penalty taker go first and the second best, fourth.
“But when (Nhlanhla) Mgaga went and missed, I thought ‘here we go again’, all the science behind it is not working,” added Barker.
Mgaga missed the first kick to give Galaxy an immediate advantage and they were ahead in the shootout before their captain Pogisho Sanoka struck the woodwork, allowing Stellenbosch to go level at 4-4 after five kicks each.
Then Lehlohonolo Mojela skyed Galaxy’s sixth effort allowing Darrel Matsheke to win it for the Winelands club.
“We hung in there. We've taken over 260 to 270 penalties over the last while. We've been practising a lot. So I just told the players that we've prepared well, just, you know, go be confident, score your goals, and the rest will take care of itself. So yeah, it's a big relief to finally won a penalty shootout.”
Barker also heaped praise on his players after they lifted the trophy.
“It turned out to be a hard fought gritty cup final between two teams that were desperate to go all the way. So I don't think the football itself was great and the tactics eventually fell out of the window, it was just about digging deep and the desire and the hunger to persevere and to be resilient and just to continue doing what you have to do on the field of play.
“My players were again unbelievable in the way they just continued to put in such committed performances. I could see and I could feel that they were a little bit heavy today, it's been quite a lot of away games over the last months. The pitch was a bit thick, so it wasn't really conducive for a spectacle in terms of ball playing. It was just about wanting to win the trophy badly,” he said.
